Granted, Oscars 2014 is so last week. Literally. But we still haven't posted our thoughts on the season and the show (ok, mostly the show), so the fat lady hasn't sung yet 'til we do. Figuratively. Let's get to doling out opinions!

But before that, prediction tallies, and a few words about the season and the eventual winners:
• We both predicted correctly the big 6 categories - yay team! Griz won the best psychic contest between us though, with 19/21 categories predicted correctly! I'm actually very impressed that he was able to predict a complete shut out for American Hustle, and an amazeball 90.48% (19/21) correct predictions. I sucked at 76.90% (16/21). I blame my generous spirit for trying to spread the wealth around. I swear I did much better on my other (work) ballot - for example, I went with Gravity for both sound categories, and Her for original writing. And I correctly predicted all the shorts! You just have to take my word on it. I win in other ways. *nod*

• The Oscars should either move its nomination announcement back a month or move the ceremony up a month. The period between the two post marks was just too long - it really changed the complexion of the game. In any other year, American Hustle would've won way more than it did (not hard to do considering its shut out - shocking, actually). And Chiwetel Ojiofor would've posed a way bigger threat to Matthew McConnaughey than he did.

• I should've kept to some of the well known rules in predictions - such as, Supporting Actress = Young Ingenue, editing = film with possibility of winning Best Picture.

• Actor category was so crowded this year that Robert Redford didn't make it for his superbly natural performance in All is Lost. It would've been something something to see Redford sitting next to Pitt?

• Who would have thunk Matthew McConnaughey and Jared Leto would each get an Oscar for acting one day?

THE GOOD

Editor:
• Brad Pitt passing around paper pizza plate. He's just like one of us!

• The Great Beauty won Best Foreign Film. To think, just months ago, I'd only dared to hope that it'd be nominated, never mind winning the whole thing. Foreign Film category can deliver! Sometimes!

• Winners' speeches were exceptional this year. I especially loved the actresses' speech - they sounded rather Hanksified? "#SUCKITJULIA"! Who knew that was Cate?

• Ellen's best joke: "It’s going to be an exciting night. Anything can happen, so many different possibilities. Possibility number one: 12 Years a Slave wins best picture. Possibility number two: You’re all racists. And now please welcome our first white presenter, Anne Hathaway."

Griz:
• Ellen. She’s not riotously funny, but she kept things loose and goofy. I’m sure the selfie and the pizza moments were more planned out than we’d like to think, but at least they felt a bit more spontaneous than what we usually get out of A-list movie stars at the Oscars. The selfie photo she tweeted out was pretty priceless too, regardless of whether it was planned or not.

• Karen O’s performance of The Moon Song with that giant moon in the background was just a lovely, low-key moment. Bonus points for the shoes being off too, a cute little extra detail.

• Worthy winners. Even though there were hardly any surprises to speak of, it’s really hard to argue against most of those who won. A bit boring, but better that than unpleasant surprises.

• Spike Jonze and Alfonso Cuarón are now Oscar winners! As is Emmanuel Lubezki, one of the best cinematographers out there, who finally got to win one on his sixth nomination.

• Lupita Nyong’o’s speech, not only because of what she said but also because she was one of the few who actually seemed to show any kind of emotional response to winning an Oscar.

• Bill Murray sneaking in a moment to acknowledge his dearly departed friend Harold Ramis was a nice gesture.

THE BAD

Editor:
• American Hustle missed all categories. It was especially too bad about the acting categories, because those were its best bets (and most deserving).

• The writing for the show's introductions. They all sounded like they were cobbled together by a bunch of monkeys looking up words in the dictionary to impress their lady friends.

• Random montages. What was the point of reminding us of the horror experienced as a child of that monkey in Oz?

• Jimmy Kimmel's unfunny bit poking fun at folks at home making fun of celebrities at the Oscars. Excuse me, but not everyone has high end designers clamouring to get them to wear million dollar designer pjs while chomping down on cheesy pizza at home, aight?

• The Act of Killing lost to 20 Feet to Stardom. I have seen 4 of those documentaries and unfortunately did not see 20 Feet so I shouldn't really be talking. But I have a hard time believing it would be better than the one-of-a-kind Killing documentary. Having said that, I didn't think Killing had a chance in hell of winning considering how just out there it was. Biggest disappointment in terms of winners of the night for me.

• Frozen winning best song. What the heck is this Top 40 music?

Griz:
• Dragging Sidney Poitier, clearly showing signs of advanced age and/or Alzheimer’s, up on stage. He barely seemed to know where he was, let alone know what was going on.

• The speeches, overall. Leto, Blanchett and McConaughey were all extremely cool and well-spoken (to the point of being too cool and well-spoken), but they just went on and on and on, aided by the fact that they apparently don’t play people off the stage anymore. Darlene Love spontaneously belting out a song and shattering eardrums everywhere was also rather cringe-worthy, to be honest.

• The slow pace. They only managed to hand out one Oscar in the first 30 minutes of the show, all the while padding it out with unnecessary stuff like a random Wizard of Oz tribute and a post-In Memoriam song. Surely Bette Midler could’ve sung that song DURING the In Memoriam clip, like they usually do?

• No funny presenters. Usually there’s a duo of Will Ferrell, Jack Black and such to liven things up but no such luck this year, unless you count John Travolta royally screwing up Idina Menzel’s name a comedic moment.

THE UGLY

Editor:
• Whatever happened to Kim Novak??? Why???

• Why were there plastic Oscars on stage? Talk about a horror show. All that money and all they got were plastic dudes on the biggest stage?

• John Travolta renamed best song's singer. Though, I don't know, this may have spawned the funniest meme (name generator) since Angelina Jolie's leg making its appearance at the Oscars?

Griz:
• The plastic surgery butchery that all these older actresses are putting themselves through is just incredibly sad to witness. You’d never guess that was Kim Novak. Goldie Hawn isn’t as unrecognizable but still pretty bad. Compare with Sally Field, seemingly untouched by a scalpel, who is just as beautiful now as she was 35 years ago.

• Pharrell Williams’ hat. I hope for his sake he has a massive tumor on the top of his head and that’s why he keeps insisting on wearing that stupid-looking hat.

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1 Response to Oscars 2014: The Show and The Awards Season

Grizzly

March 13, 2014 at 1:28 PM

There's only one competition that matters and it's this one! Work predictions and whatnot don't count! I've seen no evidence of these other predictions you speak of, you may just as well have made them up after the fact!